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Event Detail

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Taking American Public Diplomacy Viral

David Ensor, Director of Voice of America and former CNN
National Security correspondent will analyze how public diplomacy
is changing and must adapt to altering media consumption patterns.

Ensor was sworn in as the 28th Director of the Voice of America
on June 16, 2011. He joined VOA after an extensive career in
journalism and communications. Most recently he served as Director
of Communications and Public Diplomacy at the U.S. Embassy in
Kabul, Afghanistan.

As Director of VOA, Ensor oversees a worldwide multimedia
operation broadcasting in 43 languages, reaching an estimated 141
million people each week via radio, television, mobile, and the
Internet.

From 1975 to 1980 Ensor reported for National Public Radio,
where he covered the White House, foreign policy and defense
issues. From 1980 to 1998, he was a television correspondent for
ABC News, and from 1998 to 2006 he was CNN’s National Security
Correspondent.

During this period, he reported on these major international
stories: martial law and the re-emergence of Lech Walesa and
Solidarity, from Warsaw; Middle Eastern terrorism and the travels
of Pope John Paul II, from Rome; and the break-up of the Soviet
Union, the end of Communism, two coup attempts and the first
Chechen War, from Moscow. He has reported on armed conflicts in
Bosnia, El Salvador, and Afghanistan, and traveled by Soviet tank
from Jalalabad to Kabul as the Russians began their withdrawal from
Afghanistan.

From 2006 through 2009, Ensor was Executive Vice President for
Communications and Strategy at the Mercuria Energy Group, an
international energy trading and investment group. He advised the
company’s CEO and Board on strategic issues, and planned and
executed a global communications strategy for the company.